❄ Cold Relations ❄ [SEVENTEEN] ✓

Chapter 30: Something Only I Can See (i.e. S.Coups's Story)

"Aw, BangChan... did you really believe you'd evade me that easily?"

Dino glanced left and then right—two shelves and nowhere to run. "Don't call me 'BangChan.'"

"Aw, are you sulking?" Jeonghan grabbed Chan by the collar and forced him up against the wall. "Let's play a little game: Dino, nugu aegi?"

Thoughts pulsed through Chan's mind, thousands at once, of all the times he had been pushed for an answer, of all the days Jeonghan had forced him to pick between him and S.Coups, knowing full well their leader was within hearing distance. In the end, Chan cracked. All the aggression he had pent-up inside of him came gushing out. Throwing back his arm, he struck Jeonghan square in the jaw. Yoon was so shaken that he lost his balance and fell on his backside. Jeonghan wiped the blood from his lip with a tentative hand. "Dino, you've changed."

Chan was slightly fearful of the sin he'd committed, but his answer was as bold as ever. "I'm not a kid anymore, and it's about time you stop treating me like one. I deserve some respect, just like everyone else around here."

Jeonghan stared in disbelief; for once in his life, he had nothing left to say.

~.~.~

The8 zipped around the corner and crashed into a table labelled "FREE SAMPLES." Canned pineapples stacked in a pyramid teetered dangerously close to falling. Grinding his teeth, he surveyed the area with sharp eyes. "Come out, Moon Junhui... Come out and fight me like a man." There was a distinct clicking of a latch and the creaking of old wood. The8's gaze travelled up a series of metal rungs leading to a padlocked trapdoor, the latch dangling loosely in the breeze generated by the dry heat pumping into the room.

"The roof..." The8 reached for a rung but then withdrew his hand. He knows he can't get away... so just what is he playing? "Our game of hide-and-seek is nearing an end. Ready or not, Jun, here I come."

Woozi was all sweater-paws and insecurity as he wandered past the watermelons like a lost child. "Where is everyone?" Two push-doors served as an entrance to the back, and he extended his left arm towards them, his fingers just visible beneath a dark sleeve, when an icy hand clamped around his neck and shoved him into the wall. The musty smell of plaster and mildew splayed in his nostrils and had him struggling to wriggle free. Jun spun a disoriented Jihoon around to face him whilst maintaining a tight chokehold. "Where's your guitar now, Woozi?"

That voice, like a whisper through the reeds, with its slight Shenzhen inflection, The8 would know anywhere. His foot was on the top rung of the ladder; sliding down part way, he plunged a meter to the floor and assessed the scene playing out in front of him. 

Jun was throttling Jihoon. 

Both were unarmed. But Woozi was slowly losing strength in the way his fingers relaxed around the wrists of his assailant. The8 braced for a fight, ready and willing to rescue the victim of Jun's aggression, but then stopped. A name and a face—Woozi—registered in his thoughts, and he recalled how clingy Hoshi was to Jihoon, and how he was always seeking Woozi's approval.

Jihoon was smothering Hoshi!

Heat rushed to Minghao's cheeks just thinking about it. Although his head was saying one thing—let him have it, pretend you never saw anything, Woozi deserves nothing less—his heart was sending an entirely different message: Woozi's your friend. Your friend is in need. Woozi needs you. And so, The8 overcame his jealousy and raced to Woozi's rescue.

"Let him go, Jun." Minghao ripped Junhui away from the wall, and Woozi slumped to the floor, one elbow supporting his frail body, moaning softly but wheezing intensely.